And then when I was eighteen my dad died, and the night before the funeral, I wrote Bruce a letter, thanking him for having this kind of impact and for being a constant in my life. I mailed it the next morning on the way to the funeral, and a few months later he wrote back. We continued to exchange letters for a while, and in 1997 he sent a postcard and said he was coming through Lawrence, and we met for the first time. We knew each other pretty well through the letters, but we really hit it off.

Over the years we've gotten together whenever he's in the Midwest, or I'll travel to go see him. This was when I knew that it was just more [than] in my mind that we were friends: He was driving from Winnipeg to LA, and he cut across Missouri to come spend the night, on the night before Thanksgiving. We stayed up all night drinking bourbon and listening to David Bowie records. It was awesome. He's a really kind man, and I think he took it upon himself to be my friend when my dad died. So for fifteen years he's been a kind and generous friend -- he's been a guiding influence in my life.